Only In America!!

Yesterday was our trip to the Montgomery County Fair to see the grandson show his rabbit(s) as the completion to his summer long 4-H project. I don't know about you but spending the afternoon, and as it turned out most of the evening, in a hot noisy livestock barn full of rabbits and chickens is not my idea of fun. Well Grandpa had to eat his thoughts. Here 's the story and it could only be scripted in Hollywood. By the way have any of you ever taken your goat for a walk? It must be the big thing because a lot of people do it at fairs.

The day didn't start so well since we got lost on the way to the fairgrounds. Why would anyone put a fairgrounds almost in the middle of the University of Dayton? We zigged when we should have zagged. We soon found out that we weren't late since rabbit judging takes a long time and there were lots of rabbits (made sense to me based on their reproduction habits). And, of course our grandson was in the last group. Based on the crowd size rabbits are really popular with grandparents. There must have been 150 of us there under one medium sized tent. Well, the Showman competition didn't go according to plan. Both the rabbit and grandson were nervous and or hot or something because no ribbons were forthcoming. Well I thought that was too bad but the experience was what counted. Besides some of these kids had obviously been doing this for years and really knew how to pick out a cooperative rabbit. By the time this was over it was well passed 7:00 PM and I thought we would soon be on I-75 headed north. Wrong!!

We had to now wait for the Meat Rabbit Pens Competition which was the real reason for the 4-H project. For you novices this is where you try to control 3 rabbits at once while the judge tries to select the best group. Since there were 23 entrants you can imagine the length of time and potential chaos this could have. Thank God no one had a dog in the area since these rabbits were always looking for an escape route. Because of the group size the judge broke it down into two sessions. Based on my observations Seth was the youngest one showing rabbits and the competition was full of professional rabbit breeders. So I didn't think this was going to last long. Wrong again! He made the first cut. And then like the Westminster Dog Show the judge started to arrange everyone in his order of finish. The improbable happened and Seth won Grand Champion. I soon found out this was a really Big Deal! Not only did he get a big ribbon, a banner, and his own chair. He's now a fair dignitary and gets to participate in the Grand Champions Livestock Sale on Monday and who knows what else. We were told these rabbits could bring in big money (weight to dollar ratio) at the auction. Not bad for a nine year old that raised a couple of rescue rabbits (the rabbit parents) as a summer project. I know there were a lot of disappointed breeders that didn't make the cut.

Of course we had to have a quick victory party. So it was chicken fried pork steaks all around with funnel cake for desert. We finally got on the road (but had to wait for a sulky race since our car was parked in the infield) and were home by 1 AM. My father,a former livestock buyer, and no stranger to county fairs was amazed and confirmed being the Grand Champion in any category was a big deal and something no one ever wins on their first try, except maybe for great grandsons. Way to go Seth!

PS Where does one really walk their Goat?